New Section for Youth Coaches - In case you haven't noticed, we started a Youth Basketball section of our website. It's brand new so we'll be adding more to it later. But check it out to see what we have so far.

Great move on the youth section, every site i've gone to or book i've read teaches to a higher level, it's tough teaching beginner ages, i taught 3rd grade girls last year and it was the toughest thing i ever did, when you have to teach how to dribble one week and break the full court press the next in two hours of practice you need all the help you can get!!!

I get slightly irritated that leagues allow pressing at the 3rd grade level, because of the key reason you just state. You're still teaching players how to dribble. How in the heck are you supposed to teach them how to break a full court press as well!?? I strongly believe that players under the age of 14 should not be able to play zone defenses or run full court traps. The only reason it works on the youth level is that players are not strong enough to pass the ball far enough and/or hard enough. Often, teams that focus on zones and trapping, instead of developing their fundamentals, dont accomplish anything at the high school level. As a result, everybody catches up. Often, the teams that did not win as many games at the youth level but were taught the right way to play the game excel above the rest.

Youth players should be learning how to catch the ball, dribbling, passing, pivoting, cutting without the ball, how to read screens, etc. Thats enough to teach! Why do we leagues allow zones & pressing on top of this?

My advice would be look for leagues that ban zones & full court presses. If you can not find any, try to teach your kids the fundamentals while implementing some easy offenses to learn, so you dont waste all your time on the unimportant stuff.

Well have another detailed article about this in the upcoming months.

thanks for your new ideas and i would be makg use of all the techniquies given. also i would like you to let me have some on female eam and the possible drills and i want you to assist me upgrade my coaching knowledge,thanks

Attacking match-up zones is as challenging an assignment as there is in coaching. Match-ups a hybrid defenses and no two are alike. They are best described as either man-to-man with zone principles or zones with man-to-man principles. Either way they are difficult for coaches to play against and confusing for players who have to execute against.

I used to coach a very effective match-up and to be honest, I didn't care what type of offense you ran. The effectiveness of a match-up is based in adjustment to the offense. They usually get better and more difficult to play against as the game goes on. The more they see a pattern in the offense the easier it is for it to adjust. For that reason, I would lean away from any offense that has a repeatable pattern or continuity.

I think the best offense against a match-up is a motion offense. Though commonly thought of as a man offense, a motion can be very effective against anything, with a few adjustments.

Space - really space out your offense. That will force the defense to spead and effectively force them to a more man-type principle. Once you know how they are playing you, they are easier to attack.

Screens - Screen in areas instead of screening players. Because of the switches in a match-up, screening a man will not be effective because your cutters will be passes off to another defender. By screening an area and positioning your cutter, you effectively force 1 player to play 2 men.

Attack from the weakside - send cutters away from the ball, protect them with flare sceens and throw over the top. This will force bigger shifts and longer recoveries by the defense which will open up all sorts of lanes to the basket and slow recovery will open perimeter shots.

Seal after screening - Be sure to seal after a screen. Because of the way match-ups pass off cutters, if you seal, you will usually be between the defender and the basket. You just have to put the ball in a position to be delivered.

Ball reversal - the ball must move side to side on the pass. Defensively, we always thought that the dribble was our friend. Since this defense matchs off the ball, when a player dribbled we all knew where we belonged.

In short - spead them out, reverse the ball, look to the screener.

I hope this helps. If you have other questions, feel free to contact me.

i'm so engrossed with this website. for many years i've been looking for a basketball book i can use to develop a basketball training camp for boys and girls. i haven't found any which i can afford. thank God! this website has given me more than what i was asking. i'm overjoyed.

hello out there fellas! i would like to suggest a chat space for this website where each enthusiast or visitor here can exchange ideas and ask questions live in the net. that should be overwhelming in the best interest of a great sports such as basketball. how about that huh...

your ball Drills have given me lots of knowledge about the Ball Game and will help me alot both improving my Game and my coaching ambition.I look forward to receiving more tips on the Game.Thanks a alot

i can see that although a coach has his/her own concept of a team and the way the players play, such concept must fit what the players are capable of. what they are capable of and what coach likes to employ should be complementing. although the bottom line of a game play is how the players execute, the coach must be able to refine that execution with his/her own philosophy.